The Milk Bottle Newsletter - Spring 2014

Please, forward this email onto any friends who might be interested in listening these shows - they're either free and streamed online so anyone in the world can listen or Pay-What-You-Want.  Pass on the love, help make these shows something special...  


Only a few weeks to go before the next project of Project 10/52 is complete - the second of our trilogy of plays to celebrate 450 years of Shakespeare - The Shakespeare Delusion.  It's performing at the Quay Theatre in Suffolk, as well as at the LOST One-Act Festival in London - not only that, it's streaming live online - with a bit of luck video as well as audio, but don't hold your breath on that one!  And if that wasn't enough Shakespeare for you, Robert is starting a regular Friday radio show The Milk Bottle Radio Show with a reading of Venus and Adonis, the classic narrative poem by the bard.  That'll be available for a month after the live broadcast - so don't worry if you can't catch it live.

The Milk Bottle Radio Show
Broadcasting Friday 9th May at 3.30pm. 
The Milk Bottle Radio Show features the storytelling talents of Robert Crighton as he performs his own stories and classic works. Starting on Friday 9th May with a live performance of Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare.
To listen on the day - or anytime for one month after go to www.ustream.tv/channel/robert-crighton-storyteller

The Shakespeare Delusion

Written and Performed by Robert Crighton

Professor Ashborn invites you to share in his latest discoveries and lead you through the terrible secrets behind the man people call Shakespeare.  Did he really write the plays?  Was he really bald?  Did he like cheese?  Using recently uncovered documentation Professor Ashborn can finally tell the true and completely true, truly true, utterly true, true story of the Shakespeare delusion!

Performing at the Quay Theatre on Monday 26^th May at 7.30pm
Box Office: 01787 374 745
Or book online by clicking here.
To listen to the Live Stream on the night go to www.ustream.tv/channel/robert-crighton-storyteller
Also performing at the LOST One-Act Festival on Wednesday 28th May at 7.30pm - tickets available here.

In other news - the audio download for Hang isn't quite ready yet, but the script is available to buy now at the Milk Bottle lulu shop.  

Coming up later in the year...

Complicated Pleasures

An All New Comedy by Robert Crighton

Matthew has won the lottery, so he dumps his girlfriend because “he can do better”.  She rebounds on a single parent whose child is blackmailing him for lollipops.  Set in a not too distant future, this is a hilarious sex comedy about messy relationships, the balance of power between the sexes and the consequences of not giving a child a lollipop.

Performing at the Quay Theatre on Monday 21^st July at 7.30pm
Box Office: 01787 374 745

And finally, early news on the final project - or is that the first project of 10/52?  On the 31st December 2014 we're planning a big New Years Eve bash.  It's probably going to be based on The Trolls Trilogy (which can be heard online here) but it isn't going to be a straight performance of the stories.  It's going to be a mad, silly, funny (occasionally moving) evening of entertainment and so has a working title of GETTING TROLLIED.  Though Milk Bottle will encourage guests to drink responsibly.  
Tickets are not on sale yet (like all shows it will be Pay-What-You-What) so if you want to be put on the pre-sale guest list then email us now with a name and numbers.  It's not too early to plan where you'll be this New Years Eve.

After the Inquiry

It occurs to me I haven't told you about The Juliet Inquiry last month.  People really liked it - so much so, we may do it again later in the year.  It's been recorded and if I like said recording will be released online for download anon.
It was a very holistic process, working with the cast individually, none of them getting to see the script or performance of the other witnesses.  I'd added a final character to the show on the last day, bringing in the talented Pamela Flanagan with a few days notice.  So on the day of performance I rehearsed and to some degree wrote the opening of the show.  That said, we were hardly busy with it at first, having lunch on Friars Meadow in Sudbury before the read through of her script.  Then it was all hands to the pumps and I didn't really stop until the show was all over.
The Inquiry was held at the beautiful Lavenham Guildhall, where we set up all the equipment and Peter Morris miked us up for the recording.  Then, after a few photos, we were open for business.  Doors opened and the witnesses (most of them) and the audience mingled - the audience were all given visitor passes on lanyards (which I wish I'd had more time to do some design work on) and then, with an 'All rise' from the usher and a minutes silence for the victims of the play, we were off.
Now, what I hadn't told the cast was that some witnesses would interrupt their testimony - so when Benvolio libelled Rosaline she shouted out at the back of the court.  This was nothing to the scream of 'murderer' from Lady Montague to Capulet at the end of the show.
And, apart from some of the slides with evidence going a little bit wrong, it was an electrifying evening.  Not bad for Shakespeare's birthday, I thought.
In fact, The Juliet Inquiry is just the first of a trilogy of Shakespeare themed works - the next being The Shakespeare Delusion which performs later in the month and will be live streamed, and which is about all the bollocks people say about the non-existent Shakespeare Authorship Question (there isn't any question at all) and ending with Historic Crimes which partly follows on from Delusion as it in part addresses Bardolotry and what do you do about someone whose work is part of public consciousness, if they turn out to be a wrong un.
And on top of that, with my Radio show (starting Friday) I'll be performing regular bursts of Shakespearean poetry - so he's got a bit under my skin this year.

Anyway - I'll leave you with some of the comments the audience left us after the inquiry...

Malcolm (via Facebook):  An excellent event, true drama, I was so mesmerised... Congratulations on some really moving performances and fine writing.

Julie (via Facebook):  "Hear hear! So glad I was able to see it. 450 years and we have our very own 21st century Shakespeare amongst us!"

Anon:  “It was brilliant, well done to all and thank you.”

Anon:  “Lovely – super cast – super venue – more please!”

Sara:  “Well done, an illuminating perspective, I’ll look forward to the report.”

Gemma:  “What a fantastic adaptation of a story we all know so well.  Congratulations to you all.  A very fitting tribute to the Bard on his birthday!”

Penny:  “Totally fab!  Really powerful stuff and totally transfixing.  So relevant and very well done.  I loved it!”

Radio Ham

I've been playing around with live audio streaming for a while now - and I've just got a computer that should mean I can live stream more than I have been.  So, ladies and gentlemen, let me announce the start of the Milk Bottle Radio Show - it'll go live on Fridays at 3.30pm (GMT) and be available to listen again for a month after.  I'm not going to promise a show every week, but that is the plan.  It'll be a mix of storytelling and readings, taking in my own storytelling work, readings of classic stories as well as picking up the sadly neglected work for the Before Shakespeare Project.  But I'm going to start with a bit of Shakespeare.
One of the tasks set aside for my Artist Residency at the Quay Theatre was to perform all the poetry of Shakespeare.  I had planned to release a bit of poetry every day in little chunks - either the sonnets or broken down other work.  The year has got a little bit more busy than planned, so now I need to make good.  So, the plan is to start the live broadcasting with performances of the sonnets and narrative poems.
So, to start with I'm going to perform Venus and Adonis on Friday 9th May at 3.30pm on my ustream channel - after that, we shall see.
And the first Milk Bottle Radio Show is now available to listen online www.ustream.tv/recorded/47335452
Future shows will be available to listen every Friday at 3.30pm at www.ustream.tv/channel/robert-crighton-storyteller

Shit Shakespeare

I'm trying to find a shit bit of Shakespeare.  It's really difficult.  I need to find one line - one line that is irredeemably second rate.  Something that leaps off the tongue like an elephant in a swimsuit that plunges into the water of language with a booming untidy SPLASH!
It's for a one line gag in The Shakespeare Delusion which I'm performing in a little under four weeks time.  I just need one line of Shakespeare, which is obviously rubbish (or weird - I'll take weird) to punctuate the joke.  My choice of line for the first version which premiered a couple of years ago was so so - so I've asked the internet for suggestions.
So far I've had:

1. To step out of these dreary dumps
2. A maid and stuffed? Aye, there's goodly catching of cold.
3. I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word; for thou art not so long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier swallowed than a flap-dragon.
4. Betwixt Dravidian shores and linear five nine three oh one six seven point oh two, and strikes the fulsome grove of Rexel Four. Co-radiating crystal, activate!

Spot the obvious odd one out.  Some people just don't appreciate the seriousness of this mission (and this is a mission now) to find the worst lines in Shakespeare.  Google failed me - the best I got were overrated quotes - all of which were quite good.  So, come on people, we can do better!  Find me the worst lines from Shakespeare!  Bring me your clangers!  Bring me your typos!  Bring me the incomprehensible!  Find me shit Shakespeare!

The winner of my favourite shit quote will get a free copy of the published script with a thank you inside!  There, that's an incentive for you.  Either tweet me @RobertCrighton or email contact@milkbottleproductions.co.uk

The Shakespeare Delusion is performing at the Quay Theatre on Monday 26th May, at the LOST One-Act Festival on Wednesday 28th May and later in the year at the Face to Face Festival. 

The Juliet Inquiry Programme

Milk Bottle Productions...

Project Four: The Juliet Inquiry

Written by Robert Crighton, with additional material by the company

Performing at the Lavenham Guildhall, Wednesday 23^rd April

Based on the story of Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare

Specially commissioned to celebrate Shakespeare's 450th Birthday

CAST (in order of appearance)

CLERK OF THE COURT             –                      David Jenkins

PRESIDING QC                         –                      Robert Crighton

ROSALINE                                –                      Pamela Flanagan

LAURENCE                               –                      Michael Harding

ESCALUS                                 –                      Mark Holtom

BENVOLIO                                –                      Nick Elliott

LADY MONTAGUE                    –                      Annie Eddington

CAPULET                                 –                      Cecil Qadir

Audio Recording by Peter Morris

Website tended by Keith Atkinson

Charge! Or Not.

It's a busy day today - with The Juliet Inquiry tomorrow, but also with writing tomorrows episode of The Trolls Trilogy.  It's getting there, but I've also reached one of those crunch moments where I need to decide the precise structure of the next few episodes as we approach climax.  As it were.
But that hasn't been my biggest concern as in the last few weeks I've found myself caught in a trap of my own making.  I've set part of the story in the middle of the Crimean War.  This was established early in the story.  Sadly, the Crimean peninsula has got a bit hot over the last month and writing a section of the story set there (albeit in the fairly distant past) feels a bit wrong.  However, no one has complained and it's far too late to change now.  So, hopefully there won't be a world war and no one will notice.
Next episode tomorrow - but if you want to catch up then have a listen below.

THE TROLLS TRILOGY
PART ONE: The Natural History of Trolls

PART TWO: Lost Tribe of the Trolls

Rosaline

Following on from the last post, I've been deeply ensconced for the last 24 hours or so with writing the part of Rosaline for The Juliet Inquiry.  It's interesting to see what happens to a character as you start writing the words.  I don't think any writer really knows how they do it.  We all have different ideas about process, about structure and ideas, but we don't know how see sit down and produce a stream of words.  The process of creation has to be a kind of magic.  If you consciously think about it, the words start to fall apart in your mind, it becomes forced.  You may have very fixed ideas about how you intend to write or about how you will re-write (which is not the same thing) but the moment of creation is best left alone.  You don't want to kill it.
So, I had a very clear idea of what I wanted Rosaline to sound like, I had written notes and guidelines.  She was what I thought she would be.  Until I started writing and a different character emerged.  Stronger, perhaps; different, certainly.  And I don't know how it happened.  In the course of half an hours tinkering I had to stop, have a little look at what went before and take stock.  After a little thought, on I went, thinking my through the part to some degree, just letting it flow for the rest.
To be fair, there isn't room for a vast amount of character in the context of the inquiry.  The situation shuts down on certain behaviours, exaggerates others.  Rosaline would not be as open as she might be in another context.  Nerves and how they betray us are the most interesting mine to seam.  But, unlike other witnesses, she seems to be clear in her thinking.  A sympathetic witness even.  Though, that doesn't mean she's telling the truth - or even the half of it.
But that's for the audience to decide.
Right - back to the grindstone.